Goodbye Brooklyn!

This has been an incredible experience, filled with good friends, fantastic food and lots of great wine!   

I'll write more soon when I've gotten my notes together and can write about everything (and post pictures to go along with it), but I can tell you why we are standing next to a giant pig...

Last month sometime I was reading some food blog about a rice and cheese ball (ahem, fried rice and cheese ball).  The photo made it look so good and the post from whatever blog I'd found my way to had been all about these hipster kids who lived in Manhattan and walked across the bridge and found this place called Espositos... and that's where they got the rice balls.  Turns out Espositos is only about 5 blocks from Gravity's house, so on Monday I ran in and got a rice and cheese ball.  Sadly, I forgot that the blog had advised that you ask them to heat it up, so mine was cold and not nearly as tasty as the picture led me to believe.  BUT the place was really cool - smallish, a LOT of meat and just really New York.  Plus I just really thought it was cool that I could read about someplace and get there.  

We ended up also get some soprasata (spelling???) there which was so yummy that we're bringing a roll of it home for Jimmy and Abby.  

In our last few hours here (car comes at 2:30 to take us away from the magic-land known to us as Carroll Gardens), we'll take the last of Ben's stuff to the pack & ship, get a little gifty for Blue (who's probably reading this, so I'm not saying what she's getting!), and tool around Smith Street.  

I've loved every single minute of being here. It's been a magical experience - every day different, every day fun and relaxing and perfect.  And so much like the playa that I know deep-down, if we actually ever moved here, it would never be like it was this week.  This week has been a week of ideals - every night spent dining out (or in) with good friends, every day spent walking somewhat aimlessly from place to place.  Not a real life.  But a really wonderful vacation from real life. 

New York = Playa in real time

So this weekend has been an amazing combination of fantastic food and incredible friends... but what has struck me the most this trip is how much like Burning Man this experience is. I'm not naive enough (or hopeful enough!) to think that New York is just like this all the time.  It's the entire package - staying with Gravity, seeing Brian and Surly and all our amazing hippos and the almost total lack of structure we enjoyed over the weekend. 

I was thinking yesterday more about Brian's party.  It was mostly Hippos: us, Gravity, Brian and Surly, Playatollah and Ruckus, David and Victor, Marguiles... enough to feel like we were in the dome or the SAO and what I finally realized yesterday was that once again, when I'm with Hippos I'm home.  It's a lot like when I see Mom or am just at home with Ajax - I'm the most comfortable, the most at peace I ever am.  So many times at parties, even at parties where I know people really well, I feel awkward and weird and not sure of myself or what to talk about.  But just like being at Burning Man, Saturday night was a night of feeling confident, cute, sexy, smart and well, to be honest, appreciated and loved.  It's a powerful feeling.  And I think everyone felt that way - we were all sort of high in a different way from the powerful combination of our energies.  

Yesterday was really similar.  We went out for dimsum with Brian, Surly and Brian's brother Andy and adorable, non-annoyingly precocious nephew Chase (the kid can put away some dimsum!).  It was a slow morning, everyone on their own time, knowing that eventually our collective times would match up and we'd be where we were supposed to be.  After dimsum, Ajax and I tooled around Brooklyn with Gravity.  I gotta say I am loving Brooklyn.  The families, the young couples - total hipster vibe, but really just awesome.  Then Ajax and I hopped the train to Manhattan, with the idea of going by Golden Bridge so I'd know where I was going this morning.  But as luck would have it, we ended up on an express train and the first stop that made sense to get off at was Union Square.  So we called Ruckus and dropped in on him for a few hours... It was really cool to see Ajax's old place and old neighborhood - I could see why he loved living there.  After a while Playatollah came by and off we went to Katz for sandwiches, which we took to-go and then hopped a cab back to Brooklyn for one last drink with Brian and Surly who left this morning.  

Having a little taste of the playa and especially being able to hang out with Ajax, Brian, Gravity, Playatollah and Ruckus so much has been incredible.  I spent most of my time with them my first year on the playa - an experience that completed altered my life in more ways than one.  And I'd seen so many photos and heard so many stories about the NY Hippos and their parties that it was just amazing and sweet and uplifting to be here and be a part of this little family.  

Today is my day on my own - yikes!  Will be extra weird after 2 days of being with people non-stop.  I'm going to Golden Bridge for class and then to who knows where!  Just tool around the Village and SoHo I guess!  

New York New York

It's a hell of a town!

We arrived at JFK at 5 am, got to Gravity's place in Brooklyn by 5:45 am, I was crashed out on the couch by 6:15 am (while the boys went on a walkabout for few hours!) and by 1 pm we were sitting in the bleachers at center field at Yankee Stadium soaking up the surprising sun and eating hot dogs and peanuts!

Last night was a fantastic party for Brian's 40th - a party filled with hippos we adore like Playatollah, Ruckus, David and Victor, Marguiles...  it was a wonderful night full of laughter, sillyness and hats.  Pictures later...  

I am so happy to be here - I adore Brooklyn.  Gravity lives above this fantastic little cafe (The Petit Cafe on Court) and it was so cool to go downstairs, get coffee and come back up.  In 5 minutes.  The energy of the city is amazing - it just feels so  great to be here.  

 I had more insightful things to say, but a) can't remember them and b) we have to go eat dim sum now.  

sugar frosted roses

dewyroses.JPG, originally uploaded by Whimsy Valentine.

we got a little rain on saturday night.

this is what we found in the morning when we went out to walk to breakfast and the park.

Pink Roses

pink rose, originally uploaded by Whimsy Valentine.

I am totally ga-ga over our rose bushes.

And over the fact that I can send posts from flickr. Verrrrrrrryyy handy!

First the raise... then the promotion

So without going too into detail, I recently turned down a job at another yoga studio (well, potential yoga studio - it's not open yet...). My loyalty and my hard work earned me a much needed and much deserved raise - yay!! It's a good raise. It will definitely cover the increase in rent we just took on with our new house.

But there's always the catch...

Last week I got a promotion! I am both thrilled and nervous about this - I haven't really dumped any major responsibilities off my plate, though I will soon get rid of the last albatross around my neck known as "accounting." So I am taking on a bit more responsibility and am now the "Program Director" for Golden Bridge. (My last title was a bit wordy - Creative Director/Teacher Training Director/Accounts Payable... it's nice to bring it down a notch.) My new position means that I am now overseeing all aspects of all events at Golden Bridge and Sada Simran and Sarab will work under me. (Zoinks!) It makes sense in a lot of ways... Gurmukh's travelling a lot, and Marlene's too busy to oversee the entire thing... And I've been frustrated lately that I, as the Creative Director, was not getting information for events until really late, was having to chase people around for the write-ups, etc. Now I get to set the standards and say when copy is due, etc etc. And also look at the overall picture to see if there are somethings that just don't make sense.

That part is exciting to me. And as I've started already on the path, I'm getting more excited. I realized yesterday we need a complete re-design on our Teacher Training page because we've added so many trainings (Boulder, India!) and I get to be the one who designs it! So cool!!!

But I'm also nervous because it's a lot more work. To be honest, I've kind of been coasting the past few months at work. With Teacher Training now almost done, I've been able to chill out a little... now things will ramp back up. But I realized yesterday that I'm excited about this promtion because it's a chance to prove to MYSELF what I can do. I'm (working on) letting go of worrying about if I'll be good enough or pleasing my bosses... (though obviously that's important).

Gurmukh said to me yesterday when we were talking about this, that I have to be much more pro-active, much stronger and more navel (more navel = more to the point, not taking no for an answer, etc) and that she thinks my work outs will help with that. I have to say I agree with that - working out has made me stronger - but I also know that I'm able to be stronger and to say what I think/need/feel because I am married to a man who not only loves that side of me, but encourages it in me. So I have learned to trust myself and my voice much more.

San Diego

We just got back from a lovely day in San Diego. Claudia and Sarah drove down with us and went to a family function, leaving Ajax and I to our own devices for a while...






Before you think all we did was take pictures of ourselves... we took pictures of other cool stuff too:


Nothing better than good friends coming to visit and giving us an excuse to get out and explore a little!!